Priebus Hints at White House Press Corps Changes

by Don Irvineon December 15, 2016

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Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus hinted Wednesday that the Trump administration may make changes to the format of the daily press briefing, including rearranging the seating chart inside the briefing room.

Priebus floated the possibility of the changes during an interview with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt:

“The traditions, while some of them are great, I think it’s time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House.”

“And I can assure you that change is going to happen.”

These proposed changes are strikingly similar to those made by my colleague Cliff Kincaid on AIM’s The Bias Buzz podcast three weeks ago, when he suggested that more conservative organizations should be accredited to cover the White House, and that the legacy liberal media organizations should sit in the back of the room where they belong—especially after working so hard to defeat Trump.

If these changes are enacted it will surely increase tension between Trump and the media. But given Trump’s mastery of social media—Twitter in particular—he doesn’t need the media as much as they need him.

The lack of a press secretary, and the fact that Trump hasn’t held an official press conference since winning the election, should also serve as a signal to the liberal media that things will be very different under the new administration.

While there is no guarantee that the White House will make the changes that Priebus suggested, the fact that he is considering shaking things up in the briefing room only reinforces that we are indeed on the verge of a new White House press order.